When my dad was a teenager, he had a job as a janitorial assistant in a hospital in southwest Michigan. While he was working there, he got to know a lady who hailed from the deep south who had a killer recipe for ribs. She gave him the recipe, which we’ve held on to since.
You can make these ribs in the oven, and you don’t need to make the sauce (just use your favorite barbecue sauce instead), but for best results, I really recommend making the sauce ahead of time and letting these ribs sit on the grill for the better part of an afternoon.
For the sauce
Here’s what you’ll need:
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water
1 small onion, diced
1 18-ounce bottle Open Pit Hickory barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
Dash of ketchup
In a saucepan, combine the vinegar and sugar and bring to a boil. Add the water, onion, and Open Pit barbecue sauce and return to a boil.
Reduce heat, add red pepper flakes and lemon juice, and simmer for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the ketchup and allow the sauce to cool. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Note: don’t be put off by the tablespoon of red pepper flakes – unless you’re really sensitive to heat, it won’t burn your mouth out.
For the ribs
Here’s what you’ll need:
2-3 slabs baby back pork ribs
Garlic salt
Meat tenderizer
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes
The night before, divide the ribs into smaller sections, rinse them, and coat them with a liberal sprinkling of the garlic salt, tenderizer, fresh black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Store in the refrigerator overnight, loosely covered.
If you are grilling the ribs (highly recommended), get them out of the fridge about an hour before putting them on the grill to bring them to room temperature. Grill the ribs over low to medium indirect heat (keep your coals on one side of the grill, or use only one burner, away from the meat), around 300-325 degrees. For charcoal grills, I would also recommend putting a drip pan with water in it on the lower grate under the meat to keep the ribs from drying out. I also added two rounds of soaked Jack Daniels whiskey barrel chips to give the ribs a nice, smokey flavor. In total, the ribs were on the grill (turned once) for about 2.5 hours.
With about 20 minutes to go, sauce your ribs one side at a time, turning after 10 minutes.
If you are cooking the ribs in the oven, heat the oven to 325 degrees and cook, covered, for two to two and a half hours. Sauce the ribs with about 20 minutes to go, turning once.
Serve ribs with cold pasta salad (that recipe is coming soon) and fresh watermelon. Recommended beer pairing: something cheap.
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